Tag: writing for comics 101

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Adventures in Moving – A Change in the Schedule

Because of my adventures in moving, I need to let you know early (and maybe often) that there will be a change in the schedule.

Here’s what’s happening:

  • The Freelance Lifestyle blog post series is going to be paused until June.
  • Writing for Comics 101 will be on pause until June, as well.
  • The Legend of Jamie Roberts MIGHT have some scheduling hiccups. (More on this below.)
  • There will be a livestream on May 23. But…
  • No livestreams will happen May 30.

I’m moving to my new apartment on June 1. We’ll see how quickly things can get back on track after that.

“But wait!” You might be thinking. “You said there might be scheduling hiccups with The Legend of Jamie Roberts! I HAVE A MIGHTY NEED FOR GENDERQUEER PIRATES!”

First, thank you for being so enthusiastic for my adventure story of a genderqueer pirate and their two best friends treasure-hunting in a land of dragons and spirits.

Despite my best efforts, though, I don’t have much in the way of pages made ahead of schedule as buffer. Plus, Beefy McMuscleton – my devoted HP Officejet 7612 printer and scanner – has been forced to retire. So my workflow in making future pages of Jamie Roberts is going to get an overhaul. A decidely digital overhaul…

A bit sooner than expected, actually. I hoped I could stretch the process I’ve been using to the end of Chapter 3, and THEN go full digital in Chapter 4. But it looks like the full-digital comics-making process transition is happening sooner.

Because of this transition, and the move to the new apartment, updates on The Legend will MAYBE not happen once a week on Wednesdays. I will do my best to hold to this weekly-update promise! But I make no guarantees.

Stay tuned to the blog here for further updates.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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Writing for Comics 101 – Making Pages You Can Actually Read

In today’s lesson of Writing for Comics 101, let’s talk about making pages you can ACTUALLY read.

How do we do that? By not packing the pages with an obscene amount of dialogue.

Or at least, if you HAVE to keep so much dialogue, how to pace it out so it’s not a word brick.

This technique is something discussed in more detail in Making Comics by Scott McCloud, so what I’ll do for today’s post is share my mistakes so you can learn from them.

Let’s take a look at this page from Seeing Him, written by Kia Crawford and drawn by me:

seeing him transgender webcomic page 25

To be honest, there’s a way to get the information across that we need, without using a fuck-ton of dialogue.

We could:

  • split this between two pages,
  • condense the banter,
  • condense the backstory drop,
  • change the page layout,
  • change the balloon layout,
  • or any combination of these.

At least past me had the sense to split the dialogue into separate balloons. That way the page felt, at the time, a little less like a word brick.

This is me spit-balling some ideas right now on how to fix this page of Seeing Him: we could change the camera focus in the second and third panels, to cut away to framed photos on the walls. Those photos could showcase the history of the venue. With that edit, we can split the dialogue up some more, re-frame where the speech balloons sit, and make the page feel like less of a collection of talking heads.

Compare this page to The Legend of Jamie Roberts, page 65, written and drawn by me.

the legend of jamie roberts genderqueer lgbtq pirate adventure webcomic page 65

Here, I let the space breathe and tell the story for me, without so many words.

Whether you can draw or not, comics are a visual medium. Let the environment and scenery describe for you what words could not.

If you have questions, or need feedback, let me know in the comments. I’m happy to help.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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Writing for Comics 101 – Why One-Liners Are Not Enough

In today’s installment of Writing for Comics 101, let’s talk about why one-liners are not enough.

If you missed it, I wrote in last week’s installment about how to write good characters. Now, I’m going to let you in on a secret about how to write dialogue for characters:

YOU CANNOT FORCE A ONE-LINER.

Admittedly, this is more of a problem I see in people who want to get into superhero or shonen comics. Both genres are guilty of having characters talking (almost incessantly) on the pages during action scenes. This incessant talking is meant to lead into quote-worthy one-liners.

Don’t get me wrong. I love one-liners. Otherwise I would not love the movie Mystery Men as much as I do.

But here’s the secret about one-liners: They are rooted in the characters.

To have good one-liners, you need to have good characters. To have good characters, you need to know your characters REALLY well. As in, you should know the things I talked about last week. If you don’t, go back to the Word document.

But a story cannot be made of one-liners alone. You need to have connective moments. Even Mystery Men knew that.

So what you need to learn is how to write actual, believable dialogue between characters.

To make that actual, believable dialogue, you need to understand your characters backgrounds, wants, and fears.

And here’s the most important secret about making comics that few people talk about:

Sometimes, the best thing you can say on the comic page…is nothing.

Trust me: silence can say more in a story than any amount of dialogue ever could. Read Cairo and Asterios Polyp if you don’t believe me.

If you still have questions, let me know in the comments. I’m happy to help.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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Writing Comics 101 – A Comic Is More than Just Cool-Looking Characters

Thanks for joining me in the first post of Writing for Comics 101. Today, you’ll learn that a comic is more than just cool-looking characters.

Here’s a common problem I see among aspiring comics creators: they create this cool character that hits all the right buttons for trendy clothes, kickass attitude, and more one-liners than Mystery Men.

But what do these folks do with their cool-looking characters?

Absolute fuck-all.

Here’s the thing – nobody cares about how cool your character looks. And nobody cares what kind of powers or cool abilities they have.

Readers do not care about the superficial crap. Readers care about the journey the character goes on.

If you want readers to be invested in your cool characters, you have to know how to develop that character to make them go on a story.

Here’s a super easy process to help you flesh out this character. I guarantee that by answering these questions, you’ll not only make actually believable characters. You’ll also actually find a plot that writes itself.

Here are the questions you need to ask about your cool character:

  1. What’s your character’s background?
  2. What do they want?
  3. What do they fear?

That’s it.

You may have seen quizzes and templates everywhere, from Tumblr to Pinterest. These character templates will ask questions like “what’s your character’s favorite food? What’s their fondest childhood memory?” etc etc.

That’s all superficial crap. Those can, and will, change during the writing and re-writing process.

But if you get the answer to those 3 questions up top? Your character will be SOLID.

Here, I’ll use one of my characters to illustrate this point.

This is Auxaton.

What’s his background? He’s a mountain ridge elf, and a monk for the goddess Ahyahweh. His life is devoted to acts of community service, to help his people live in a cold environment.

What does he want? Well, recently ALL OF HIS PEOPLE have been kidnapped and enslaved. He wants to find his people so he can free them.

What does he fear? That he will lose his connection to his goddess.

And with that, we have a plot! A monk who has lost his people is on a journey to rescue them.

Now, folks who have studied film will say, “Wait, you didn’t address their need! Story is what a character wants vs what they need!”

You have already figured out their need – by asking what they fear.

What the character WANTS and what they NEED are two different things, but are usually tied together. For example, in the Disney movie Aladdin, Aladdin’s WANT is riches and a palace. He FEARS Jasmine discovering that he’s not a rich prince, but a beggar boy using magic to appear rich. His NEED is to stop pretending to be something that he isn’t.

So there you have it. Do this exercise and I guarantee that you will have yourself a character that’s worth exploring and writing about.

Stay tuned for more writing tips. And be sure to sign up for the email newsletter to know when the next Writing for Comics 101 drops.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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Writing for Comics 101 – The Beginning

comic script for the legend of jamie roberts page 3

I’m beginning a new blog post series. Called Writing for Comics 101.

I had an epiphany recently, thanks to some new work I do. See, I’ve been hired as the Chief Creative Officer at NeverEnding. (Find out more about NeverEnding over on their website.) This new work has gotten me in contact with artists, because we’re looking to grow the team a little bit.

So I’ve been talking with other artists a lot more often. That’s nice, considering that the coronavirus pandemic has shut down convention season. So my options of chatting with other artists got a bit more limited.

That said, I realized something talking with some of these folks, pre-virus and presently. The thing is, many of them start as comic artists…but then they get frustrated at the lack of readers, so they leave the business. Many of these artists have moved on to just freelancing in general. There’s nothing wrong with that! But it made me realize something.

You can be the most killer comic artist on the planet – but that doesn’t mean shit unless you can write well.

And the thing is, many of these former comic artists…are not great storytellers.

This gave me the inspiration to start the Writing for Comics 101 blog post series. I’m going to keep this series to 4 posts. If there’s enough demand for it, I’ll expand it. But 4 posts (not counting this one).

We’re going to talk about:

  • why a comic is more than just cool-looking characters
  • why one-liners will not save your ass
  • design tricks to make the reader actually read your page
  • how to STOP packing so much dialogue into your pages

I hope with this short blog post series that I can help my fellow artists get more confident in their writing ability. I KNOW you can draw AND write killer stories. You just need more guidance than Google can provide.

So stick with me. And be sure to sign up for the email newsletter so you can keep up with this series as it posts.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.